Chapter Five

Lizzie parks the car in front of an old mansion. It's rare to see these types of places nowadays. Not everyone still keeps wood shingles as roofing, plaster walls, and torches lining the porch. Ivan steps out of the car before proceeding towards the place.

Pressing the doorbell, Ivan waits a few seconds before the door opens and reveals an old maid. She looks like she had just finished dusting the shelves before opening the door for them.

"My name is Mr. Movan and I am requested here by Mr. Munoz."

"Ah, I see. Come in. Mr. Munoz is just waiting in the living room."

"Thank you." Ivan says before entering the place with Lizzie following from behind.

***

Ruby lets out a sharp exhale as she finally finishes moving the drawer. Now holding her broom, she sweeps from behind the furniture.

Reaching all the dust. She finally finishes this room and proceeds to the next one. When was the last time this man had cleaned his surroundings? It looks clean on the surface but he sure hides a lot of dust.

After sweeping and mopping on the second floor, she proceeds downstairs. Vacuuming, mopping, dusting, arranging the pillows, and getting rid of a few stuff here and there.

"I'm so tired..." She whispers to herself before reaching the locked entrance. She stands still and stares at the garden.

[ "No means no, Ruby." ]

Ruby sighs. Why did he suddenly get so aggressive? There must be some bad memories in that garden. Did someone he loves dearly disappear? Is there some kind of flower that he cherishes? If so... how recently did this tragic incident happen? The garden does have dry bushes and barely living trees. They must be living off the rain.

She decided to push it away and ignore the sight.

Despite all the questions inside her head, she popped all of them and continued cleaning the house. Doing her job is the only thing that matters to her right now.

There must be nothing else bugging her.

The tea is hot inside this house but it's better if she doesn't ask for a serving. All she needs to think about is leaving this place. The moment she gets to leave, she can find Mr. Webb and join him in putting up a donut shop.

***

"Thank you for coming all the way here, Mr. Movan. We appreciate it, we're really old... so we can't travel around the world to meet up."

"No worries, Mrs. Munoz." Ivan says before bidding goodbye to the old woman. As soon as they get inside the car, Lizzie places a hand on the steering wheel while the other tries to start the engine.

"Ned Munoz, born in 1993. Father of two, one is Kate Munoz."

"The friend of the missing person?"

"Yes, basically she's missing right now as well. If she isn't running away with Hazel Burrows, that is."

"Why would she be running away with Hazel?"

"Who knows? This case has just begun." Ivan says before turning off the tablet he used to record the conversation. Lizzie sighs before backing up from the parking spot and proceeding to the next person they're supposed to interrogate.

***

8:35 PM and she's alone inside the gigantic house. She had dinner already but she was feeling a little bored and hungry. Strolling towards the kitchen, she stretches her arms in the air. Looking at the fridge she lets out a huff of air through her nose.

She's feeling a little guilty.

Should she really be taking snacks from the fridge? The items here aren't basically hers.

"I was kidnapped here to work, a little treat from the fridge should be okay." She mutters to herself before opening a KitKat bar. Biting the whole chocolate she then lets out a moan of satisfaction. She likes sweets but all she had were the donuts inside the shop. They were free but there were times she didn't want to eat it.

It's not always that someone can get used to the sweet stuff.

She then finishes it before throwing the wrapper inside the bin. Finally walking back to her room, she closes the door and jumps on the bed.

It's as if her life had just turned around.

She used to sleep on a very small bed right beside her bag of clothes. She could barely afford anything and she had to value everything she had.

Now she's a maid in a private investigator's house.

"I wonder if I can tell Mr. Webb how I'm doing. He must be really worried about me..." She mumbles before caressing her pendant.

"Blake Collins... I wonder where he is and why I can't remember a single thing about him." Ruby whispers to herself before closing her eyes. While trying to remember her guardian's face, she slowly drifts to dreamland.

***

7:30 AM, Ruby is finally awake. She usually wakes up at 7 and starts preparing herself. She just takes a quick shower before going down to the kitchen. It's been 19 days since she started working under Ivan's care.

She knows the days because she kept a mini-notebook.

[ "Ruby, where are you?"

"I'm here, welcome back."

"Oh, thanks. I got this when I was out there. I thought you'd need something like a diary or some kind of paper to keep you occupied. You can keep notes of your schedule here. Just to make sure you don't forget how to write." Ivan says while handing her the notebook. ]

Ruby smiled as she crossed another date in her notebook. Finally going down to the kitchen, she prepares a simple sandwich and coffee for both of them. Ivan usually goes to his study at 9:30 AM, so everything is still warm the moment he comes down.

"Good morning, Ivan!"

"Good morning, Ruby."

"Breakfast today is a sandwich."

"Thanks... I'll be heading now."

"Yep." Ruby says before she follows Ivan with her eyes. His back disappears the moment he enters the library.

That's the usual conversation they have. It's just really simple. Good morning, here's breakfast, I made lunch, dinner is ready, and good night. It's like a repetitive routine now. But despite that repetition, Ruby isn't tired of it.

She never gets bored with the greetings even if they're just the same every day.